The great flash momentarily blinded everyone and caused Rykaru and Paltio to connect mentally. Inside his mind, Paltio was deep in thought when suddenly he saw a small white ball floating toward him.
"Rykaru! What are you doing here?" Paltio asked, surprised as the little creature landed on his head.
"Well… I don't know," Rykaru replied innocently. "I was desperate because you fainted. Also, Lukeandria said that if they captured us, they'd experiment on me, and I don't want that! Or to be separated from you…" His eyes began to fill with tears as he continued, "Then I was going to cry, but I accidentally touched you with my ears, and suddenly… I appeared here! What is this place?"
Paltio frowned, looking around.
"This is supposed to be my mind… But it's strange… I can't sense Golden anywhere."
Suddenly, a deep voice resonated through the space. Before them appeared enormous eyes that seemed to contain entire galaxies, like windows into infinity.
"What are you?" Paltio asked, his voice filled with reverential fear.
"I, little child, am the All. I am the creator of worlds… and your creator. I am…"
"Avocios? How is that possible?" Paltio interrupted, incredulous.
"Well, child, I'm not exactly sure how you managed to contact me. You're in your subconscious; this is only a version of me that you can perceive for now," Avocios explained calmly.
Paltio, astonished, had dozens of questions for his creator: Where had he been all this time? Why hadn't he helped them during their dire circumstances? However, before he could ask, Avocios interrupted.
"There's no time, Paltio, to answer your questions, but I promise I will later. First, you must leave this place. You're under attack. Find the piece of the scepter located in this realm, and we can communicate again. I'll awaken you so you and your friends can find a way to escape. There's no time—get up, child!"
"But… can you at least help us?" Paltio asked urgently.
"Very well, for now, I can only freeze time for a few minutes. Hurry, my child, do your work and find the piece as soon as possible in this realm," Avocios responded before abruptly pulling Paltio out of the mental space.
"Guys!" Paltio exclaimed as he rose from the ground.
Everyone looked at him in astonishment, a mix of joy at seeing him conscious and fear over what was happening on the other side. Golden observed him skeptically, wondering how Paltio had recovered so quickly.
"There's no time, guys! We need to escape from here! Avocios told me he froze time for a few moments!" Paltio announced urgently.
"Avocios?!" everyone exclaimed in unison, stunned.
" Yep, Yep!" Rykaru squeaked, his ears trembling with excitement.
Golden frowned, thinking quickly. That must be why he woke up so fast, he reflected to himself.
"Yes, but I'll explain later. There's no time! We need to escape from here as soon as possible!" Paltio insisted, moving toward the exit.
Ron glanced at the blocked door, deep in thought.
That's why we didn't hear anything from the other side… Time is frozen, he concluded mentally.
"But how do we get out of here?" Alita asked urgently. "The only entrance, which is also our exit, is blocked."
"What if we use Nakia's shrinking power?" Lukeandria suggested, looking at the small bird with hope.
"Yes, but the downside is that she can only use it on two people," Alita pointed out, frowning as she assessed the situation.
"What if the rest of us go into Paltio's bag? That way, only Paltio and Mok would have to ride on Nakia's back," Ron proposed, crossing his arms with a satisfied smile at his idea.
"Well, it's not a bad plan," Golden said, nodding in approval.
Quickly, everyone sprang into action. Without losing a second, everyone climbed into Paltio's bag, except for Mok and Paltio himself. Nakia used her power to shrink them and lifted them onto her back. At that exact moment, time began to move again. A loud explosion echoed from the door: Zor and his team had used explosives to force their way through.
Upon entering, Zor and his group discovered that the enormous toad was dead, and where the young fox had been before, there was now no one.
"But who could have done this?" Zor wondered aloud, visibly nervous as he realized he had failed his mission.
Meanwhile, taking advantage of the chaos, Nakia fled out of the area. She ventured into the underground tunnels, but soon realized she had forgotten which way they were supposed to return.
"What do I do, Paltio? Which way should I go?" Nakia asked, flapping her tiny wings anxiously.
"This is serious… We can't ask Toco-Toco right now; he'd turn into a mini-cat and slow us down even more," Paltio replied thoughtfully. "Besides, remember that Nakia's potion doesn't last long, so we can't delay too much, or we'll grow back to normal size."
Golden quickly interjected:
"I don't think Toco-Toco would turn into a mini-cat, but you're right—we can't risk it."
"I only vaguely remember it was around here," Nakia said, pointing with her beak toward a tunnel. However, after advancing a few meters, they encountered a labyrinth of paths branching off in multiple directions.
"What do we do, Mok?" Paltio asked, looking at his butler with concern as he surveyed the dark, seemingly identical tunnels.
"How fortunate you asked me, Master," Mok replied with a confident smile. "Luckily, I left some marks on my knives. Follow them, Nakia."
Sure enough, on the walls were small cuts forming arrows, pointing the way forward.
"What a great idea, Mok!" Paltio exclaimed, grateful for his butler's foresight.
Nakia followed the marks until they reached the spot where they had entered. They climbed up through the hatch and returned to the place where it all began. The area was in disarray, just as they had left it.
Soon, Paltio and Mok returned to their normal size. Everyone else emerged from the bag, including Rykaru, who was upset because he didn't like being away from Paltio for even a second.
"Thank you for the rescue," Kilibur said, looking at them with gratitude. "That toad temporarily absorbed the powers of its opponents, but the machines they used drained my abilities to control the minds of others with my illusion and order magic."
"I see… That's why everyone in the town only had that one thought in mind," Mok commented, finally understanding the magnitude of the problem.
Lukeandria cautiously approached the window to check if anyone else was nearby. Fortunately, the soldiers didn't seem to be in the vicinity. Once everyone could breathe a sigh of relief after the risky rescue, Golden turned to Paltio seriously:
"Explain yourself, boy. What do you mean you spoke with my lord Avocios?"
Paltio sighed before responding:
"Well, I'm not exactly sure. When Rykaru touched me, something changed during my fainting, and we were able to access that place. I was going to ask him a few questions, but he said there was no time and that we were in danger."
Ron, surprised, interjected:
"Does Rykaru have that kind of power?"
The little creature smiled widely, innocently showing off his ability.
"But… how?" Alita asked, curious.
"I don't know," Rykaru responded sweetly, shrugging his shoulders.
"We figured as much," Ron and Alita said in unison, exchanging knowing glances but smiling at Rykaru's adorable expression.
After hearing Paltio's account, Golden remained silent for a moment, reflecting with a thoughtful expression on his face. Finally, he spoke:
"I understand. That's typical of our lord."
Paltio nodded and added seriously:
"What he did tell me is that we need to find the piece of the scepter in this realm so we can contact him again."
"Well then, what are we waiting for? Let's search for it immediately!" Golden exclaimed, visibly excited. It had been a long time since he'd seen Avocios, and the chance to communicate with him once more filled him with enthusiasm.
Paltio, somewhat uncomfortable, added:
"Well… I'll have to enter that mental state of yours again, but I hope this time it works better and doesn't end with me being expelled like those eyes that threw me out last time."
Kilibur, feeling indebted, interjected:
"If you want, I can help. It's the least I can do after everything you've done for me. But I need to fully recover my powers first."
Paltio smiled and took out the scepter sphere, using its energy to heal Kilibur. Once his powers were restored, the young fox placed a finger on Paltio's forehead, closed his eyes, and guided him into a deep meditative state to begin the search for the scepter piece.